How Stella Saved the Farm: A Tale About Making Innovation Happen

“Those sheep poop everywhere,”If there is one line that sums up this entire book, I believe this is it. It doesn’t seem to matter if you are running a farm or a million dollar hospital, or working with people or sheep… “Those sheep poop everywhere,” can be heard (and found) in every situation.Deirdre saved the farm.It took everyone really, but none of it would have worked without Deirdre’s leadership. My favorite character – and one I have always wanted to be most like – is Einstein. When it comes down to the nuts and bolts of leadership – you have to constantly ask yourself if you are looking at things correctly.One of my favorite concepts in this book can be summed up in this quote. “At the luxury end of the market, cost isn’t the most important factor – or even the second or third most important. The most important factor is that we deliver what the customers want.”I need to remember this.I loved this book!

This audio book is kind of cool in the way they teach you a lesson in the form of a story. You are meant to pick up the points on your own from the plot instead of just being taught in classroom form. And the story is fun to listen to. I drive an hour each way to work and this helped pass the time for a few days.The general idea is to be innovative and think outside the box.I gave it 4 stars only because the points don't seem to come together in a cohesive way.

You'll see everyone of your staff members in the book and you'll become aware of their strengths and weaknesses. It's a very short read. You'll learn that trying something new is very challenging and is not just immediately measurable as to its success. We all know this... it's just good to be reminded, and they do that with this book! Innovation is the key to winning the competition battle and this book is the perfect stimulant and energizer to make you want to read the editors new book "The Other Side of Innovation". I have gone out and bought 4 more of this book and gave them out to fellow executive CEOs. I

I strongly recommend this book. It has both! It has a funny story, easy to read and good advices to make an innovation team. Also you can find some advices about teamwork, business innovation experiment and other things that you can face with when you want to make a change in a business.

This was a cute but predictable parable. Certainly an easy read and with possible application.

An innovative way to tell the story of how to run an innovation organization. Fantastic read and great insights! Must read management book for all organizations with a commitment to reinvent itself to remain relevant.

I bought this book because I oversee product innovation and we are working to foster a culture that is more supportive of innovation. We know we need to be more understanding of the risks, benefits, costs and emotional challenges this work entails, but we need specific tactics to get there. I viewed this book as a potential tactic, a conversation starter with our executive team.I read it, and I also asked my boss to read it, but it fell short of something I wanted to ask the entire leadership group to read. Why?In terms of positives, I thought it was easy to read and understandable. I liked that it was based on a lot of great research. However it just seemed to speak to me too much. I cannot exactly pinpoint what it is, but something holds me back from asking others to read it. It could have been the farm animal aspect that threw me.Bottom line, I was looking for something that spoke more in the language of our leadership which has decades of experience. This just seemed to much written for myself and younger generations that have been raised on theories of agility and innovation.So I recommend this book to innovation practitioners, and perhaps even sharing with certain executives, but to some this book may feel a little too different so to speak. It may be met with the same response some of the new product innovation ideas receive - they just feel a little to different to really get in to.

"How Stella Saved the Farm" changes the setting in order to unchain creative thinking. The authors have chosen a "farmtastic" setting - i.e. a farm managed by animals - in order to highlight some of the problems business leaders face when they have to synergize radical innovations and a mature or a declining core business. There are many hints on the kind of people problems, on the shifting organizational design, and on issues concerning the reporting and on the rewarding systems as thy relate to the radical venture and to the core business. This short and pleasant story can serve as an introduction to the seminal work of the authors on the management of radical and reverse innovation. Of course, synergizing radical innovation and the core business remains a problematic kind of opportunity.

Great read and relatable.

It reads easily on the plane or on holiday and has smart learning points that can be exported in a business environment - I recommend!

I had lots of fun reading this fable. It covers team work and integration with all its ups and downs. I learned a lot.

This is a master piece written by Govindarajan. Corporate theory & practices are presented in form of a fable.Animals running their own farm is basic theme- which is parallel to management running an organization.When they are faced with business odd, they need to innovate & in the process they learn how to manage innovation process.Book provides excellent insights about managing manpower, budget, internal conflicts & talent for introducing innovation.key take away is that innovation effort needs specialized attention & cannot be measured by routine matrices until it matures.setup handling routine operations cannot handle innovation & separate small set up & separate leaders are required to make innovation successful.The book is a must read for innovation leaders as situation narrated in story is everyday experience in organizations which struggle to innovate, of course the book provides way to success also.

An Interesting fable that explains why learning is very important and innovation is a must for any business to stay successful! The characters are very well sketched out. It can be a fabulous exercise to teach Innovation. A must read for those who want to innovate their businesses